GUEST boat builder Bob Perkins is assisting 500 Sails and its boatbuilders with the completion of I Marianas, a 40-foot-long Chamorro canoe, at the organization’s Lower Base boatyard. Variety spoke with Perkins on Tuesday, July 29.
Perkins retired from his position as director of the Marine Education and Training Center in Hawaiʻi in 2023. He has also been a member of the Polynesian Voyaging Society since 2000 and has sailed with them on numerous voyages throughout the Pacific and beyond.
While on Saipan, Perkins will help make I Marianas fully seaworthy so the nonprofit organization can sail it in local waters. It will also be used as a “running plug” to create a mold from which other 40-foot canoes can be fabricated.
Perkins’ visit also serves as an on-the-job training opportunity for 500 Sails’ boatbuilding staff.
He has been on island since July 17. During that time, he and the 500 Sails team have installed foam along the gunwale to strengthen the canoe. They have also applied fiberglass and resin to previously unfinished sections of the hull’s exterior. On the day Variety visited the boatyard, Perkins and the team were preparing to apply putty to the hull.
“The whole idea is to help train the people who are going to be doing it, and to train any students who want to learn how to do [boatbuilding],” Perkins told Variety. “We’re going to build a mold over the [running] plug. Then the mold we can use any number of times to make hulls out of. But we can also use this as a hull as well. That was the whole idea behind it — to build a hull, then use it to build a mold, and also to sail as a canoe.”
To make a mold of I Marianas, the finished canoe must be “very, very smooth,” Perkins said.
He explained that the skills local boatbuilders gain from this project can also be applied to the creation of smaller canoes.
Perkins added that his work with 500 Sails contributes to preserving indigenous Pacific cultures. He told Variety that in the Pacific, canoe building, voyaging, and seamanship can be a source of pride for native peoples.
“What’s important to me is the educational aspect and the cultural aspect,” he said. “We’ve done something similar in Hawaiʻi with the Polynesian Voyaging Society, which built Hōkūle‘a and sailed to Tahiti and back — and has now sailed around the world. That was the inspiration for a lot of people getting involved with their culture and their roots. And I’m hoping the same thing will happen here and carry over to the Marshall Islands as well.”
Perkins will travel off island in early August, leaving the 500 Sails team with tasks to complete while he is away. Over the next few months, he will divide his time between Hawai‘i, Saipan, and Washington — instructing staff and continuing to work on the canoe during his visits.
He did not provide a finalized timeline for the canoe’s completion, but said it will take longer than nine months.
Bob Perkins, left, is assisted by local boat builders at the 500 Sails Boatyard in Lower Base on Tuesday, July 29, 2025.
The 40-foot long I Marianas is currently at the 500 Sails Boatyard.
